Despite the Blues holding the lead for most of the game, the Steelers won 7-6 with a lone shootout goal.
The Blues were looking to bounce back after a tough pair of losses to the Swan Valley Stampeders and Winkler Flyers.
Although the first period was scoreless on both sides of the board, the Blues had the momentum heading into the intermission and were leading 13-10 in shots on goal.
The action skyrocketed in the second period. The Blues’ Sullivan Shortreed kicked off the scoring with a pair of back-to-back goals. His first was just 2:09 into the period and was assisted by Coby Stauss. His second was after picking up a pass from Griffin Chwaliboga and dangling to pop the puck past Selkirk’s netminder.
The Steelers answered with their own pair of goals. Connor Barley went the length of the ice and fired from the circles, going bar-down for a goal, and Ryan Sokolowski added another just over one minute later to tie it up at 2-2.
Later in the period, Blues’ veteran defenseman Ethan Unruh scored his first goal of the season with help from Thomas Hansell. Rookie Jayson Szun followed it up with his second of the season, making it 4-2. Szun’s goal was assisted by Luke Seremet and Curtis Rebeck.
The Steelers’ Brett Namaka added one more goal to make it 4-3 heading into the intermission.
After the break, Namaka found the five-hole, tying it 4-4.
Just a few minutes later, the Blues’ Braeden Binda pulled the hosts into the lead once again. The goal was assisted by Nathan Hillis and Chwaliboga.
It looked as though the Blues had sealed the deal when Codey Behun scored on an empty-netter with less than two minutes left in the third, but the Steelers quickly answered back with two goals in under 30 seconds to tie the score at 6-6.
Overtime was tight, but no goals were scored.
It came down to one goal in the shootout. The Steelers’ Ryan Sokolowski found some space over Jack Branby shoulder to take the game 7-6.
The Blues’ next game is in Swan Valley at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 26, while the Steelers play again on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. as they host Virden at home.